The present invention relates to an earphone support.
It is well known in the art to provide a support for an earphone that is supported entirely on a wearer""s ear.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,260,997 discloses a communication headset with two curved housings that rotate with respect to one another to allow the headset to be held firmly in place over one ear of the user. One housing supports a microphone boom which has a free end positionable adjacent to the users mouth and the other houses a receiver element for producing sound from electrical signals. Feedback between the receiver and the microphone is reduced by an elastomer friction hinge between the two housings. The receiver element is encapsulated by elastomer to further reduce feedback and to protect the receiver element from physical shock.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,881,161 discloses a headphone composed of a speaker, a microphone, and a flexible earpiece capable of being secured to the external ears of various sizes. The flexible earpiece is formed of a flexible rod which is provided at one end thereof with a female portion and at another end thereof with a male portion engageable with the female portion.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,179,590 discloses an apparatus for use with or integrally formed of a telephone instrument, where the telephone instrument is thus functional to enable concurrent use and non-use of related equipment. The apparatus has a faceset means formed of a transmitter-receiver unit worn along a user""s face for positioning the transmitter in proximity to a user""s mouth and the receiver in proximity to said user""s ear. A module housing the electrical circuitry controls incoming and outgoing electrical signals to the telephone instrument and transfers these signals between the faceset and the telephone instrument. Hence, the user is able to employ the faceset during a telephone conversation in a hands free manner. A mechanical linkage is formed of the module and serves to actuate the on-off switch of the telephone instrument which is placed in proximity to the module and simultaneously actuating on-off switches in the module to thereby control operation of the faceset and telephone related equipment.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,020,297 discloses a light weight operator""s headset that includes a generally cylindrical housing in which is disposed a receiver transducer, and an arm pivotally joined to one end of the housing. Secured to the arm is a microphone transducer, from which a sound conductive tube extends in a pivotally and extensibly adjustable fashion to the operator""s mouth. An arcuate resilient member extends obliquely from the housing to define a slot therebetween in which the outer ear is received to thereby support the headset. A channel in the arcuate member receives the conductors which extend to their respective transducers.
The present inventor has evaluated the prior art devices and found that long term wearing (2+hours) of the prior art devices results in significant discomfort to most users of such earphones supported on the ear alone.
The present invention earphone support comprises a pair of curved ear contact supports, each held substantially rigidly apart from and attached to a slideable axis, thereby forming two slideable axes that meet and form an angled set of slideable axes. The ear contact supports are thereby releasably slideable from an in-contact position with the wearer""s ear to a release position therefrom. The relative dimensions of the present invention comprise are critical to the wearer""s comfort. The structure forming the ear contact supports are relatively thin in comparison with the prior art devices, with the substantial advantages of such thinness described below.
The present invention forms a very comfortable support device for any of several devices that may be desirably be held apart from although directed to the external acoustic meatus, such as a small speaker which may optionally comprise additional extensions for a small microphone. Such speaker/microphone combinations are well known in the art and reductions in their combined weight have not substantially alleviated the wearer""s discomfort and sometimes substantial pain in long term wearing. The present invention has been found in many tests of long term wear to essentially eliminate such discomfort.